IIT Madras

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) or IIT-M is an autonomous public engineering and research institution located in Chennai (formerly Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is recognised as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. Founded in 1959 with technical and financial assistance from the former government of West Germany, it was the third Indian Institute of Technology that was established by the Government of India through an Act of Parliament, to provide education and research facilities in engineering and technology.

IIT Madras is a residential institute that occupies a 2.5 km² campus that was formerly part of the adjoining Guindy National Park. The institute has nearly 550 faculty, 8,000 students and 1,250 administrative and supporting staff.Growing ever since it obtained its charter from the Indian Parliament in 1961, much of the campus is a protected forest, carved out of the Guindy National Park, home to large numbers of chital (spotted deer), black buck, monkeys, and other rare wildlife. A natural lake, deepened in 1988 and 2003, drains most of its rainwater.

The main entrance of IIT Madras is on Chennai's Sardar Patel Road, flanked by the residential districts of Adyar and Velachery. The campus is close to the Raj Bhavan, the official seat of the Governor of Tamil Nadu. Other entrances are located in Velachery (near Anna Garden MTC bus stop, Velachery Main Road), Gandhi Road (known as Krishna Hostel gate or Toll Gate) and Taramani gate (close to Ascendas Tech Park).

The campus is located 10 km from the Chennai Airport, 12 km from the Chennai Central Railway station, and is well connected by city buses. Kasturba Nagar is the nearest station on the Chennai MRTS line.

Two parallel roads, Bonn Avenue and Delhi Avenue, cut through the faculty residential area, before they meet at the Gajendra Circle, near the Administrative Block. Buses and electric mini buses regularly ply between the Main Gate, Gajendra Circle, the Academic Zone, and the Hostel Zone.

IIT Madras offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 360 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

The institute has 16 academic departments and advanced research centres across disciplines of engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories. The academic calendar is organised around the semester. Each semester provides a minimum of seventy days of instruction in English. Students are evaluated on a continuous basis throughout the semester. Evaluation is done by the faculty, a consequence of the autonomous status granted to the Institute. Research work is evaluated on the basis of the review thesis by peer examiners both from within the country and abroad. Ordinances that govern the academic programme of study are prepared by the Senate, the highest academic body within the institute

Internationally, IIT Madras was ranked #312 in the QS World University Rankings of 2012, 53 in the QS Asian University Rankings and 17 in the QS BRICS University Rankings of 2014.

The Times Higher Education World Rankings ranked it at 76 and 44 in Asia and BRICS countries respectively in 2014.

In India, among engineering colleges, it ranked 4 by India Today in 2012,5 by Outlook India in 2012,and 2 by Dataquest in 2011. In the Mint Government Colleges survey of 2009 it ranked 5.